I would love to hear from your perspective, where are we in the shift? Is SEO really gone or is it just a little different? What's real and what's not?

So I would say the shift is not as uncertain as it was when it was just beginning, where there was this idea that maybe you could go back to the way things were.

It's very squarely, and the AI is here to stay, and those sort of answers are here to stay.

So I'd say it's more mature.

It's still changing.

But the way I look at it, and as I understand it, GEO is influencing the actual training data of AI.

what these LLMs know about you.

And I've heard, I've heard AI is the great equalizer, right? I'd love for you to tell me whether, first of all, whether or not Google ads are dead or are they dead? Where are we with advertising? And are we about to enter into a brand new era?

So when you're weighing up a 6% Airbnb link against the standard booking against your own direct site, you're not guessing your pricing against real numbers because direct is cheaper is a feeling direct nets me 12 more at this rate and i'm still under the market is a decision that's the difference beyond makes there's a link in the show notes to find out more all right then back to it um so once you understand the cost and you've given us that thousand pounds example zach How should you actually price the same property across the different routes? When should you retain the commission saving? And when might sharing some of it with the guest make a bit of commercial sense?

I mean, in terms of pricing, the fee saving really changes what you actually retain from that booking specifically.

So before passing it to the guest, I would actually check whether the dates need a price incentive at all.

That's really where you should be starting.

And probably the best way to do that is by starting with the bookings received at that point in the booking window.

So for a peak week, for example, compare the night sold at the same lead time with the property's usual booking curve and check that the remaining availability and total prices of your comparable stays.

So if bookings are arriving at the, let's just say the current rate and competing availability is shrinking, then I would actually keep the price and retain the saving rather than having a blanket direct discount and giving that margin away unnecessarily.

What's the biggest mistake then that operators should avoid when judging whether their channel strategy is working how do you distinguish additional business or a better return from booking simply moving between channels and how might the benefit differ for the property owner and the management company

But how do you stand out? How do you actually get those comparison websites, affiliate partnerships to work well for you? So if we start with Finder, like what have you seen are the FinTechs that do really well on Finder? What gets them featured versus ignored? What gets them to succeed kind of in that space?

Yeah.

So I think it might even make more sense to just focus on what gets ignored because the opposite of that is what gets you featured.

So a lot of times there will be, we'll get inbound from startups or companies that are just now starting to reboot their affiliate program.

And it's always sort of the same pitch of, hey, we think we'd be a great fit for your audience.

And then they kind of jump into a description of their product and leave it there.

And they think that's going to be enough for the client services person to, I guess, just be like, oh, this is a great fit.

How have you found attribution has gotten more difficult in the past couple of years because of AI overviews and all that? Are you finding that more and more people are going straight to the offers because they find them via ChatGPT? Is that happening? And if so, how do you then talk to your clients and customers and say, this is how many signups we're getting?

Why is it that so many talented pricing people struggle the moment they have to explain their work to leadership?

Yeah, it's a pretty common problem, to be honest with you.

I've seen it more than once, and I'm sure we're going to see it time and time again, unless obviously you follow the advice we're going to give you in this session, naturally.

I think realistically, it's actually a structural reason for it, if you like.

So revenue managers, if you think about it, are trained to be analytically complete right so they check pricing they check pace they check competitors events restrictions all those kind of things and more and then they check all those before they make a decision that discipline is absolutely 100 necessary But leadership operates very differently.

So leadership doesn't necessarily reward analytical completeness, if you like.

It actually rewards decision clarity that you actually make.

How should a manager build and deliver that answer so that it lands?

Walk us through how to deliver that message so it builds confidence instead of alarm.

So I think when you're doing communication or explaining a strategy, the first rule is that not every rate movement that you actually make needs some form of owner communication.

Naturally, dynamic pricing will move the rates.

And as long as an owner understands what dynamic pricing is all about, then that area makes complete sense.

So dynamic pricing makes natural rate changes as a condition changes.

And I think, you know, having to go ahead and explain every time a small adjustment has actually happened specifically to pricing, it would actually probably cause or create more anxiety than confidence.

Right.

Yeah, I mean, it's

And what's so special about Finder.com?

Cool.

Thanks, Jeremy.

Yeah, so a little bit about myself.

I started in the SEO space in 2015.

I actually co-founded a news company with my childhood best friend.

It was called Rant.

So then is the play long term as an SEO to consider part of your role as audience acquisition or not just SEO, but in general, digital marketing? strategy it needs to become audience acquisition you know even if you're installing concrete walls in florida you know capturing the contractors who are going out to check uh you know bids for the the walls that their clients are asking to get installed like trying to to put out industry materials that are helpful otherwise but for the sake of creating a captive audience

The Beyond Report says hosts are losing seven to 12 hours a week doing work their revenue management system should be doing for them as someone who lives in this world does that match with what you actually see and what should property managers be doing with that time instead

Yeah, so I think before I answer the question, I mean, I have the report right here.

It's a fantastic report.

I've actually gone through it twice.

I guess it's not even report, it's more of a checklist.

And what I really like about this checklist is that it doesn't do the things that most automation content does in terms of telling you to switch everything on and walk away.

It actually starts by splitting your week into three types of work.

Who's it for and what can people expect on the day?